Village single screen theatre should be promoted: Pookutty

Published: Monday, January 17, 2011, 17:00 [IST]

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Guwahati, Jan 17 (PTI) Oscar winner sound wizard ResulPookutty today said the village single screen theatre has tobecome the centre of commercial film activities with theadvent of multiplexes and digital cinema in the country.

With Bollywood preferring to move away from stories ofthe middle class due to commercialisation of movies, thevillage single screen theatre has to become the centre ofcommercial film activities, the Slumdog Millionaire''sound designer said during an informal interaction with themedia here.

The National Film Award winner for Best Audiographysaid, "with the advent of multiplexes and digital cinema, wehave to take first hand cinema to the villages to talk aboutour lives".

"It is our responsibility to keep alive the single screentradition. It requires governmental help as youngsters todayare creatively thinking in an explosive manner", the BAFTAawardee said.

On the corporates charging heavy licencing fees for using5.1 sound systems, he said, "the government as the custodianof our traditions must pressurise these corporates to relaxtheir fees for the benefit of the regional movies".

The Padmashree sound designer, however, lamented that themultiplex cinema halls in the country were not following anytechnical standards in the absence of government guidelineseither for sound or movie projection.

"As there are no government technical guidelines whenthey are given licence, the multiplexes do not have the rightsound systems or projector distance for the viewers'' optimumsound and viewing pleasure", Pookutty said. (more) PTI ESB

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"There are a lot of civil rules and regulations as to the layout of the halls, fire exits, etc., but none on sound andprojection specifications", Pookutty said.

"The multiplexes are bound by a 1924 Act which only talksabout their civil liabilities but has nothing on theaudio-visual aspects. What it has on sound makes no technicalsense", he asserted.

"The viewers in a multiplex spend a minimum Rs 100 for athree-hour cinema. Neither the sound nor the picture qualityare good there. The high quality 4k projectors are not used inIndia. The viewers have a right to file suits under theConsumers Protection Act for being deprived", he asserted.

"On the sound situation in the multiplexes we from theSound Engineers Association in Mumbai wrote to the ProducersAssociation, which in turn wrote to the Exhibitors. Thegovernment has to step in so that quality control isimplemented", Resul pointed out.

The prestigious Asianet Film Awardee also lamented that"We don''t protect as national treasures our artistes be thatin the performing arts, applied arts or folk artistes. Untilthey have performed abroad or have a Ph.D they cannot teach inthe university".

"We also don''t document our oral art...we have a richtradition of it. There is serious flaw in our policies.

politics has to be kept out of it", said Pookutty who is on aprivate visit to Assam.

"Like the various painting forms as expresssionism,cubuism and others, cinema has also gone through 100 yeas andit needs to be studied as an artform in its purest form", hesaid. PTI ESB

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"The FTII was set up by Nehru with that in mind but ithas gone through a lot of downslides. The fees there is notaffordable, banks don''t want to give students loans as afilm career is unstable they think", the FTII alumnussaid.

"We are in the process of forming a new vision policy forFTII", he said for the uplift of his alma mater.

To a query Resul said, "regional cinema can be acommercially viable proposition. Government should think interms of bringing the youth to cinema".

Speaking about the employment potential in the medium, hesaid, "90 per cent of the musicians, programmers, conductorsin the Bollywood industry are from the North East region.

fifty per cent of my sound design manpower come from the NE.

They are hardworking, serious and genuine".

Appreciating the musical talents of the region, Pookuttysaid, "a music group from Mizoram was nominated for threeGrammy Awards but not much is heard about it outside".

On his winning the Oscar he said, "it has helped theyoungsters to come into the field of sound technology. Despitemaking the highest number of films in the world the Indianfilm industry has received no recognition in the internationalarena till Slumdog happened".

"I see this Oscar as an opportunity to reach out to theyoungsters and audience to make better cinema and extend mytraditional knowledge of sound", Poorkutty said.

Asked when he would again be visiting Assam, Resul shotback "may be for an Assamese film".